jerome j. jackson

Private E-1 Jerome Jackson’s letters, hurriedly handwritten on muddy paper to his mother from jungles and sandbag bunkers, tell the true, first person, contemporary account of a combat medic, rich with the details of how soldiers survived day to day in a life-threatening landscape. They reveal Doc’s rage against the mismanagement of a military fiasco during what Jackson considered a senseless war. The letters were discovered in his mother’s estate. Interspersed are related recollections as told from his wheelchair to co-author Constance Emerson Crooker, who adds commentary to give context.

"A testament to raw human courage, the will to persist and survive, even to find grim humor in the absurdity of his fate. A remarkable and truly honest book about war." -- Rebecca Pepper Sinkler, Former editor in chief, The New York Times Book Review

"Fascinating letters from a frontline medic with a need to shield his family from war's horrors and dangers while relating daily details of army life." -- Peder Bisbjerg, Environmental Engineer, twenty years experience living and working in Vietnam

"This book is a must read for any politician who is thinking of sending young Americans into the carnage of war with the foolish idea of reshaping another country." -- John A Wetteland Jr., A Battery, 1/83d ARTY March 1969-May 1970

"Doc Jackson's legacy of truth is recorded in his letters sent home--history that would become a treasured time capsule." --Mike Hastie, Army Medic Vietnam, 1970-71